Masquerade
by ChirpChirp1827
Summary: Because really, thats all high school is. Tendershipping, Marik/Malik, and Puzzleshipping.
1. Prologue

**Masquerade**

_**A/n: I have no clue how, or why, I'm going to write this but...I am. I've never wrote a Yugioh Fanfiction. **_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh**_

**Prologue. **

Yugi wasn't sure how it had started. But now, he was running in circles pretending like he loved everyone when he wanted to punch a few...okay a lot of people in the face

Ryou knew how it started. And he had no plans to put an end to this nice and quiet facade he'd put up.

Malik just wanted to be popular. He'd give up that logical and smart side of him, as long as people liked him.

Yami was sick of being betrayed, so up went the stoic and cold mask.

Marik couldn't afford to get arrested again, so away went the boy who loved pranks and fighting.

Then there was Bakura who saw through all their masks. Bakura who saw that flare in Yugi's eyes when Anzu started a friendship speech. Bakura who saw Ryou open his mouth to call someone a idiot, only to close it. Bakura who saw that Malik had that difficult math problem figured out before everyone else. Bakura who saw Yami wanting to reach out to help someone after they fell. Bakura who saw Marik's hands twitching after an insult. And it was Bakura, bad boy Bakura, who would bring them together.


	2. Chapter 1: First Meeting

**Masquerade **

_**A/n: I'll be truthful here...I don't really know where this story is going. I just know I really want it to be good so I can try and not be one of those people who ruin a character for someone because of a horrible fanfiction...**_

_**I wonder if I can be one of those people who writes a fanfiction so could that after you read it nothing seems nearly as good for a while. **_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh**_

_Masks are something we use to hide. _

_To run._

_To escape._

**Chapter 1: First Meeting**

Yugi laughed as Tea told a joke, suppressing the urge to hit her since her voice was so fucking annoying. He allowed himself to image her laying in a pool of her own blood with a sword through her chest.

"gi...Yugi!" a voice exclaimed pulling the young blonde from his thoughts.

"Sorry what did you say?" he asked turning his head to face Mokuba, who was now standing behind him.

Mokuba sighed, and Yugi could see him cursing his socialite nature, before repeating, "Bakura-senpai is looking for you."

Yugi blinked at his fellow first year before answering, "Oh. Okay, do you know where he is?"

"Music room," Mokuba answered. Yugi nodded before standing up, glad for the excuse to get away from Tea and her annoying voice, and dumped his tray before heading in the direction of the music room. All the while wondering why the third year would be looking for him.

-**TenderBronzePuzzle- **

Ryou opened his mouth, ready to tell Honda* that he needed to shut up before he shut him up, only to laugh lightly before politely saying, "That wasn't very nice Honda."

Honda laughed, "I was just joking Ryou."

'Just joking my ass,' Ryou thought as he laughed.

"Ryou," spoke a voice and the whitette looked up to find Mokuba standing behind him.

"Hey," Ryou waved at his classmate. Mokuba was one of the few people Ryou was truly nice to. Something made it difficult to be mad at the young Kaiba, unlike his brothers Seto and Noah.

"Bakura-senpai Is looking for you. He's in the music room."

Ryou nodded before heading off, wondering what the third year wanted with him.

-**TenderBronzePuzzle-**

Second year Malik Ishtar whistled as he walked towards the music room. Casually he pulled the door open, not expecting what he saw.

Sitting in a circle were a group of teens from different cliques. Ryou Bakura sat with his arms crossed, his eyes showing clear hatred, Yugi Mouto was gripping he bottom of his seat, his eyes much the same as Ryou's, Marik Ishna was laughing in a very random and slightly psychotic way, and Yami Atemu had his arms crossed as well but he looked more exhausted then pissed like Ryou.

"What the hell?" exclaimed Malik before he could stop himself, "Why are all of you sitting here? Where's Bakura?"

"It's an invention," declared Bakura walking out of the teachers office with a box in his hands. Before Malik could turn around he spotted something in the box which made him walk towards Bakura.

**-TenderBronzePuzzle-**

"First off," Ryou declared causing Marik to stop laughing and everyone but Malik to look at him, "Why do we need a invention? Your the one getting high on school grounds."

"I did that once!" exclaimed Bakura as he set the boy in the center of the circle, "And you need an intervention because your all art of a masquerade." Ryou raised an eyebrow and Marik could see an interesting relationship beginning to start.

"He means we're all pretending," Malik declared as he crouched down and shuffled around the box, "We're all wearing masks like the attendees** of a masquerade."

Marik couldn't stop himself from saying, "Whoa. Mr. Popular has brains."

"Whoa, Mr. Hiding-in-the-shadows is not only in the sunlight, but he's speaking!" Ryou answered sarcastically, his voice dripping with venom.

"You are so mean, so against the way I act," exclaimed Marik with a pout, and a flash in Ryou's eyes said he clearly picked up the double meaning in the use of the word 'act', "What happened to Ryou?"

Bakura looked him in the eye, "Nothing. He just stopped pretending."

**-TenderBronzePuzzle-**

"Ah ha! I was right," exclaimed Malik pulling a packet out of the box, "Logic puzzles."

"Yeah. I put something in the box each of you," Bakura declared, "Something to represent the real you." Seeing this gained everyone's attention he went on, "Logic puzzle's for Malik because his true self is smart and logical. Silly string for Marik since he's really a fighting trickster," Marik caught the can of green silly string, grinning when he sprayed some of it in Yami's hair. "A stress ball for Ryou, because in reality he's rude and easily angered and I don't want to risk anyone getting punched when their here." A yellow stress ball with black stars in his was thrown at Ryou. "A journal for Yugi so he can count how many times he wants to kill Tea so Marik can hit her in the future." A black journal was tossed to the blonde as Marik grinned. "And a teddy bear for Yami because he's really a big softy and I didn't know what else to get."

Right as Yami caught the bear the bell signaling the end of lunch rung and the group dropped the items into the box before grabbing their stuff and started to leave. "We'll up here during lunch everyday," Bakura called as he grabbed his backpack and followed after them.

"If we don't come?" Yami asked speaking for the first time.

"I'll drag your ass down here," Bakura stated with a smile before running off in the direction of his 6th period math class.


	3. Chapter 2: Why?

**Masquerade **

_**A/n: Hey! So, because her made me glow this chapter is for Tiikerikissa! Thanks to all the other reviews who gave me some very good advice and such! I promise to do my best on this story! If your confused about anything, please review or pm me. I'll answer if I can, if not assume it'll be explained later in the story. **_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh**_

**Chapter 2: Why?**

"Sorry I'm late," Yugi called walking into the music room the next day, his bag slung over his shoulder, "Tea wou..." He stopped abruptly, "Well isn't this a supraise." Much to Yugi's supraise it seemed everyone from the day before was already sitting in a circle.

Malik was laying on his stomach on the raisers as he worked on one of the logic puzzles, tapping his pencil against his lip before jotting something down. Yami was sitting at the other side of the bleachers rubbing his shin which had a giant purple and black bruise on it. Marik was running around in a circle, and Yugi couldn't help wondering if maybe Bakura wasn't the one they should be worried about doing drugs on school property. Ryou was sitting in a chair throwing his stress ball at the wall and then catching it.

"Hey," Ryou said suddenly as Yugi dropped his bag by the door and pulled a chair up next to him, "Did you guys realize our oh-so-annoying fearless leader isn't here?" Suddenly the whole group looked around the room and found Ryou was right, Bakura was no where in sight.

"Worry not!" exclaimed a voice before Bakura entered the room slamming the door shut and dropping his bag by it, "For I am perfectly fine!"

Ryou scowled, "I wasn't worried about you asshole. I was hoping you'd been hit by a truck."

"Sure you were, sure you were," Marik sung standing with his hands on his hips now.

Bakura raised an eyebrow and said, "By the way, why were you running around in a circle? Do I need to search your bag for drugs?" Ryou snickered and Bakura sent him a warning glare.

"Course not," Marik answered, "I never did drugs. I was just trying to get some of the energy out before we started doing...whatever it is we're going to do in here."

"You know, I'm kind of wondering that to," mused Malik as he made his way over and joined the circle Bakura was setting up, "What are we going to do in here?"

"I was thinking maybe we'd just talk...Be ourselves you know?" Bakura stated looking around the circle.

"Umm..." Yugi spoke up nervously snapping eyes to him before he said, "What happened to you Yami?"

The other blonde tilted his head before pointing to his leg, "You mean this?" When Yugi nodded, Yami sighed and explained, "I was trying to help a old women across the street and she kicked me in the shin..."

Everyone was silent for a moment before Bakura and Marik began laughing hysterically, "You got beat up by a old women!"

"She didn't beat me up," huffed Yami, "She just kicked me in the shin."

Ryou laughed, "Whatever makes you feel better."

**-TenderBronzePuzzle-**

They'd been chatting for a while, saying anything that came to mind, when Ryou said, "This is nice..." Bakura raised a eyebrow, so he clarified, "Being myself you know?"

Malik nodded, "Your right. It feels nice to just drop the mask and be me around people outside my family."

"It's funny," Yugi declared, "I don't even remember why I started pretending..."

"Well I do," Marik stated with a shiver, "I'm so not going to jail for a 10th time. Military school does not seem fun."

Yami shrugged, "I was just sick of being so trusting that I ended up hurt in the end."

"Mines more insignificant then any of yours," Malik chuckled, "I started because I wanted to be popular...I use to get teased so much in middle school."

Soon everyone, Bakura included, was staring at Ryou. Noticing the looks he asked, "What?"

"Why? Why'd you start acting the way you did?" questioned Marik.

"It's none of your business," Ryou stated picking at his nail, but Marik kept pushing it. "Just leave it!" the whitette snapped before grabbing his bag and storming out of the room.

After a silent pause Yugi asked, "Shouldn't one of us go after him?"

"I will," Bakura declared standing up, "This whole group was my idea, so it's my responsibility. I'll see you guys at lunch tomorrow." As if to agree with him, the lunch bell rung just then and the rest of the group followed him out.

**-TenderBronzePuzzle-**

Ryou was already halfway to his car when he heard a voice calling his name and spun to find Bakura coming towards him. "What do you want?" he hissed, despite himself he couldn't help being a little flattered that the other had followed him.

Bakura shrugged, "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Of course I am!" exclaimed Ryou, "I've been through so much that, that is hardly anything." Before Bakura could ask what he meant, Ryou spun back around and continued towards his car.

_**E/n: Sorry it's short...I'm not good with long chapters. **_

_**This is going a little to fast eh? But, don't worry (or worry) Ryou's secret probably won't be revealed for a while. Again, I'm sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes. **_


	4. Chapter 3: Dragged

**Masquerade**

_**A/n: Welcome back to another chapter! I hope you like it! **_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh**_

**Chapter 3: Dragging**

Ryou watched with calm brown eyes as the group left the cafeteria. Yugi's amethyst eyes met Ryou's for a moment, silently asking if he wanted the blonde to wait until he finished his lunch so they could walk down to the music room together. Ryou shook his head just enough for Yugi to notice, he didn't plan on going today. The small blonde opened his mouth as if to protest, but was stopped by Yami placing a hand on his arm and leading him out of the cafeteria.

"Ryou?" questioned Honda waving a tan hand in front of his face, "You feeling okay man?"

"Oh...yeah. Sorry," Ryou declared flashing him a grin which brought a blush to his cheeks. After Honda recovered from the smile, the table continuing their usual routine of Honda telling a story, and Ryou saying the opposite of what he was thinking.

"Whoa!" Otogi exclaimed suddenly a while later, "Bakura's in here for the first time in weeks." For some reason Bakura hated to eat in the cafeteria, and had started eating in the music room when his third year began. "And he's coming towards us."

Ryou jerked his head around and found himself looking at a slightly annoyed Bakura, "Thought you could skip huh?"

"No," he replied licking some chocolate pudding off his spoon, "I know I can skip." Ryou watched has anger flared up in Bakura's eyes before the boy grabbed his wrist and dragged Ryou through the cafeteria. "Ow! Bakura let go it hurts!"

"Are you going to come willingly?" hissed Bakura between clenched teeth. Since they were outside the cafeteria now Bakura pinned Ryou against the wall and got close to his face, "I'm trying to help you got it? This hurts. Always hiding hurts, and when someone wants to help you, you should take their help!"

"Speaking from experience?" growled Ryou.

Bakura was quiet for a moment before saying softly, "Yeah actually I am. And I want to help you."

Ryou was quiet for a minute before nodding his head, "Fine. But I don't want anyone asking anymore questions about my past okay?"

"Ryou!" Yugi exclaimed when the two white haired boys walked into the room, "You came after all."

"Bakura, Ryou," Malik declared from where he sat, a pile of orange fliers next to him, "Have you seen these?" Malik held up one of them and Ryou saw a picture of a Masquerade Mask with the words 'Are you wearing one?' in big black letters on the bottom.

"Oh that was me," Marik declared as he walked back into the room, having gone to the bathroom, wiping his still wet hands on his tight jeans, "I figure it'll get everyone wondering right? Almost like a mystery."

"Or a trick," laughed Bakura, "The whole school will be wondering about this."

Marik shrugged as he sat down, "It was the best I could come up with. I've got to get back in the groove."

Ryou raised an eyebrow before shrugging as he bent down and picked his stress ball up out of the bin. When he gave it a squeeze, it more out of habit then anything, it exploded in his face. "Marik!" Ryou shouted but by the time he had wiped his now soaking bangs out of his face, the tan boy was already out the door. "I'm going to kill you." Ryou started to run after him but Bakura grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back.

"Your never going to be able to catch him," Bakura declared, "He runs to and from school as well as being able to run the mile in Eight minutes without even panting."

Ryou scolded, "I'm not letting him get away with this."

"Just catch him tomorrow," sang Yugi, "Haven't you ever heard the saying 'Don't forgive your enemies, plot your revenge over night.'"

Yami laughed, "You totally got that from Bumper Stickers."

Yugi smiled, "You have Facebook?"

"Who doesn't have Facebook?" Yami replied.

"Uh that would be me," Bakura declared raising a pale hand just above his head.

Yugi gasped, "Then we need to hook you up." Before Bakura could say anything, Yugi was dragging him over to the computer. Bakura was already seated and logged on when the blonde realized, "Facebook is blocked on school computers isn't it?"

Malik put his pencil down, and joined the group at the computer, "Move. I'll get you through the block."

"Whats you guys doing?" asked Marik as he popped back into the room and found the group huddled around the computer. "Am I forgiven Ryou?"

Ryou glanced away from the screen and answered, "No, but I'm to busy to kill you." Curious, Marik walked towards the group to see what they were doing. On the screen was the Facebook 'Basic Information' page for when your editing your profile. Marik read through the list of things to see what Bakura had put.

_Current City: Japan_

_Hometown: Japan_

_I am: Male _Marik noticed that Bakura had checked the 'Show sex in my profile' button.

_Interested in: _Marik saw that both the women and the men boxes were clicked.

_Languages: Japanese, English, Sarcasm._

_About me: I'm sorry..i don't trust my stalkers._

"Want me to add you?" Bakura questioned, his hands already in the position to type Marik's name into the search bar.

With a nod Marik declared, "It's under the name 'Marik_The Shadow.'" Malik raised an eyebrow so Marik added, "I thought it fit, that's basically what I am. By the way, that boyfriend of yours – Kaiba right?- is cheating on you with Jou."

Malik gasped, "What? How did you know that?"

"You learn a lot when no one pays attention to you," Marik declared, "They don't even realize your sitting there. I've got dirt on so many people. Like how Anzu has this huge crush on Yami because Yugi rejected her when they were like ten and the two of them look alike, or howAfekia is selling pot."

Yugi whistled, "Guess we know who's dealing to Bakura then."

Bakura scolded, "Shut up you guys. I only did drugs once."

"Yeah, yeah," Ryou answered rolling his eyes before adding, "Have you ever noticed Yami doesn't talk much?" All eyes were placed on the taller blonde.

"What? Do you have a problem with that?" Yami asked.

"As a matter-o-fact," Yugi declared, "I do."

Marik, seeing an opportunity said, "I now pronounce you husband and husband."


	5. Note: MUST READ

A/n: Sorry ladies and Gentlemen (are their any man reading this?) but this is a very (….) important note: I have made a cover for this story!

Now I'm not the best artist ever, but I think I did a goodish job on it and i'd really love if you'd all go take a look at it.

It can be found at: http:/ lovelessgirl1. Deviantart. com /art/ Masquerade-Cover-205404741

(Can you guys see it? Remember REMOVE SPACES!)


	6. Chapter 4: Bitch Slapped!

**Masquerade**

_**A/n: I don't know about you guys (because most of you don't review: GRR!), but I liked the end of the last chapter.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh**_

**Chapter 4**

"Good Afternoon!" Marik shouted as he slid the door to the music room open roughly. To his supraise he found the only one who was there at the point was Malik, who was typing on the computer, "Where is everyone?"

"Yugi is still eating I think, Bakura and Yami are plastering those fliers up, and Ryou is retaking a quiz," Malik answered without looking away from the computer, "They should be back soon though."

Marik strolled over to Malik, "What are you doing anyways?"

"Setting us up on the club section of the school website," Malik answered as he continued typing the data in.

"I thought only teachers could access the site," Marik answered as he watched Malik's fingers dance across the keyboard.

Malik smirked, "I'm just that good." They sat in silence as Malik wrote the last of the information down. "And finished and locked so the teachers can't take it ton." Marik took the opportunity to read through the information.

_Masquerade_

_Teacher: Unknown_

_President: Unknown_

_Information: Masquerade is a club for all those who are participating in the Masquerade. Weather you join or not isn't up to you, its up to the President, who sees through all our masks and wants to help us delete these facades._

"I don't know if I agree with your choice of words but its awesome," Marik answered after reading it.

Malik hummed, "Really? I thought I did a nice job."

"Well you did, but 'delete these facades' sounds a little..." Marik trailed off and turned his head toward Malik, "You know?"

"Do you think so?" Malik answered, turning his head as well. They ended up with their lips only inches apart.

"Yeah," Marik whispered, his heart pounding for reasons he couldn't figure it out.

"Yeah," Malik whispered back, his pounding just as fast, "It's to bad I can't change it without risking them finding out it was me."

"Uh huh," Marik answered, "Can we stop talking now?"

"Yeah," Malik replied. Marik was ready to crush their lips together when the door swung open with a noise bang causing them both to jump, Malik ending up on the floor because he had tipped his chair.

Bakura took one look at Malik blushing on the floor, and Marik with his hands shoved in his pockets as he avoided looking at the boy and knew something was going on. "What are you two dooooing?" he questioned in a teasing voice.

"Nothing," the two of them quickly denied.

"It doesn't look like nothing from the way your blushing," Bakura declared.

Malik huffed, "I have a boyfriend Bakura."

"Yeah a cheating one," Marik answered in what he knew sounded like a jealous huff.

"Kaiba isn't cheating on me," Malik defended as he stood up, "He's a nice guy."

As if on cue the down swung open to reveal a very pissed Ryou and nervous Yugi walking into the room. "Your boyfriend," Ryou hissed walking angrily towards Malik, "is going to die a very painful death if he screws with my grades again."

"Eh? What do you mean?" Malik questioned confused.

"That fucking Seto Kaiba conned the teacher into giving me a F on my test that first time, because Mokuba ranked second while I'm first," Ryou declared.

There was a short pause before Marik said, "Such a nice guy huh Malik?" Angry, and hurt about all he'd heard, Malik got up and stormed out of the room, the group following.

**/**

Kaiba was sitting in the cafeteria, still picking at his food like always, when Malik walked in with the others following. "Hey Babe," Kaiba greeted, when he saw Malik. When he noticed the group behind him, Ryou the closest to Malik with Bakura gripping his arm so Ryou didn't lunge for Kaiba, Marik and Yami stood next to each other behind Bakura with Yugi behind them looking a little frightened by this whole scene, "Why are you with them?"

"Did you purposely screw with Ryou's grades for some reason as stupid as the fact that he's a better student then Mokuba?" Malik asked.

"He's not a better student then Mokuba!" Kaiba objected, "That..that...disgusting thing must of cheated some how."

Malik brought a hand up and smacked him across the face, "No one, and I mean no one, talked about my friends like that. We are through."

"Good!" Kaiba shouted as he watched Malik walk away, "Because Jou was a better fuck then you anyways!"

Malik stopped where he stood, frozen for a second before he spun slowly on one heel, grabbed Marik's collar, and pulled him into a deep kiss in front of his stunned ex-boyfriend. When he pulled away, Malik turned to Kaiba with a mischievous smirk and said, "Nice to know I'm not the only slut in this relationship." And then the bell rung and they all scrambled to their class rooms, some more slowly then others and some faster.


	7. Chapter 5: Dating?

**Masquerade**

_**A/n: That last chapter was fun to write :D I have this secret obsession with anything which involves Seto being put in his place **_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh**_

**Chapter 5**

The next day the group sat awkwardly in their circle. Bakura was sitting backwards in his chairs, eyes looking from Marik to Malik, Ryou sat next to him doing homework, Malik was next to him his violet eyes clouded over with confusion as he stared at Marik across the circle, Yugi sat by Malik his eyes scanning around the circle wondering what he had missed, then besides Yugi was Yami who seemed even more confused then the shorter boy, and finally Marik, who was staring anyone but Malik.

"Okay," Ryou declared, snapping his book closed, "Can we two please just talk about this? I have a three page essay due, and with all this tension I can't concentrate long enough o write more then sentences!"

"There's nothing to talk about," Marik declared coldly, "He kissed me in order to get back at Kaiba, end of story."

"And your clearly lying," Ryou snapped, "You wouldn't be so cold about it if it really was nothing. So whats the real problem here?"

Bakura hummed before saying, "As much as I'd like to keep seeing this side of Ryou, because it's utterly adorable." Ryou blushed lightly as Bakura went on, "I agree, can we please just talk about this, and move on?" When neither Marik nor Malik said anything, Ryou stood up and grabbed Malik by the collar.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Malik shouted fussing as he was dragged over to Marik.

"If you don't fucking say it," Ryou hissed between clenched teeth, "I will punch you in the face."

"I don't know what you want me to say!" Malik answered, his eyes avoiding meeting Marik's.

"I want you to tell him how you feel," Ryou answered, hand still on Malik's collar.

Malik turned a bright pink, "It's not like that Ryou!"

"I call bullshit," Bakura cut in, content with letting Ryou run this discussion.

"No one asked you," the blonde snapped, "And Ryou, considering how you and Bakura totally have some unsaid feelings its hypocritical of you to be doing this."

"Look," Marik declared loudly, making all of the movement stop, "I like Malik but the feelings aren't returned. It's clear he kissed me just to screw with Kaiba."

"That's not true!" Malik protested, "I kissed you because I wanted to kiss you. Screwing with Kaiba was just a bonus. Fucking bastard. I swear I'm going to strangle him one of these days."

"Guys," Yami said suddenly, "lets go outside and let these two talk about this by themselves okay?" Ryou reluctantly agreed and followed Bakura, Yugi, and Yami out of the room.

**-Insert Line-**

"I can't take this any more!" Ryou shouted after ten minutes when they were still sitting outside the music room. Despite protesting in the background, Ryou bursted into the room. "Oh god gross!" he exclaimed. Marik was sitting on the bleachers with Malik on his lap, arms around his neck, as the two made out.

"So...you two are going out?" questioned Yugi, peeking out from behind Bakura innocently. Yugi, unlike Ryou, didn't change very much. He was a nice, nervous, and innocent person. The only difference between this him, and the real him was that he wasn't afraid to admit how much he wanted to hit certain people sometimes.

Malik looked back at Marik, as if looking for confirmation, who said, "Hell Yes!"


	8. Chapter 6: What the Hell?

**Masquerade**

_**A/n: I agree with all of you, I'm very happy Marik and Malik are together finally :)**_

**Chapter 6: What the Hell?**

The group were sitting in their 1st hour classes. Yugi was working on his sheet of 54 math problems with help from Ryou, Malik was sitting in his English class texting Marik, Marik was in science class texting back while his lab partner did all the work, Yami was in Art working on a new piece, and Bakura was sitting outside ditching. Suddenly the principle could be heard over the loud speakers, _"Lately there has been a unauthorized club doing illegal activities." _Malik rolled his eyes when he heard this, hacking into the school website and posting posters in the school were not illegal just because they were pulled off by kids clearly smarter then you. _"I am warning this club now, disban or there will be consequences." _

Yugi's pen dropped out of his hand, and Ryou turned his head towards the speaker, **_what the hell?_**

Malik's eyes widened and he texted Marik, **_what the hell? _**He'd just hit the send button when he got an identical message to his own from Marik.

Yami's paint brush fumbled in his hand, leaving a read streak on the canvas, **_what the hell? _**

****Bakura blotted right up, having previously been laying in the soft grass in the forest near the school, **_"What the hell?" _**

_**/**_

****"What did you do," Ryou asked, dropping his backpack and approaching Bakura as he entered the music room during lunch. "What illegal thing did you do this time?"

"Why would you assume it's me?" Bakura snapped back angrily, "Why would I do something to threaten a club I made?" Yugi could tell tensions were high, under normal circumstances Bakura wouldn't dare snap at Ryou.

"I don't know, maybe because you've been in jail before?" Malik suggested, joining the conversation as the missing three entered the room.

Bakura raised a eyebrow, "So? Marik has been in jail more then I have."

"Placing the blame on him just makes you look guiltier," Yami declared, arms crossed. "Just tell us what you did Bakura, we won't be mad. We're all friends."

"Why do you all assume I did something?" Bakura roared, the pressure getting to him. "Ryou's the one who refuses to tell anyone anything about himself!" The group turned to see a frozen Ryou standing there. Realizing what he had said, Bakura's eyes widened, "Ryou I didn't..."

"Shut up!" Ryou shouted his body moving from the force of the words, "And fuck off! Just go die Bakura!" He hurriedly grabbed his backpack and ran out of the room. Bakura didn't hesitate to go after him, leaving the others behind.

"Oh my god," Malik shouted suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Marik questioned, turning to his boyfriend who was now logged onto the schools computer.

"The...Why that bastard!" Malik mumbled angrily, "I'll be back tomorrow, I need to do some stuff at home." Malik stood up and grabbed his backpack before walking out of the room, biting his lip in thought as he mumbled to himself.

Curious has to what had frustrated his boyfriend so much, Marik bent down to see what Malik had been looking at. Instead of the words Malik had written, in the description box for the club were the words:

_That's all you've got? Your skills dropped Mal, I'm quite disappointed. _

_Point is: Your stupid club had better watch out. We're going to take revenge. _

Marik suddenly felt a mixture of confusion and anger. He was angry someone would talk to Malik like that, and angry that someone was going to try and rip this club away from him. He was confused as to who 'we' was and why they wanted revenge. Suddenly he realized what Malik had said before storming out. "Guys," he told Yami and Yugi, who were hovering near him after they read the screen, "We've got to go to Malik's house, he knows who did this."


	9. Chapter 7: No One Fucks With Seto Kaiba

**Masquerade **

**A/n: Hey again guys!**

**Chapter 7: No One Fucks With Seto Kaiba **

By the time Ryou finally stopped, they were a few blocks from the school and both boys were out of breath. "Ryou! Please," Bakura pleaded, "forgive me. I didn't mean to say that."

"Their dead, Bakura!" Ryou screamed, tears running down his face.

"What? Who's dead?" Bakura questioned, shocked by the sudden outburst.

"The reason I put up a facade, is because their dead," the smaller boy answered, his voice shaking. His voice was heavy with a British accent now that he wasn't trying to control it. "My mother and sister died last summer, right before I moved to Japan and started high school."

"R-Ryou I didn't know." Bakura cursed himself because his voice had started shaking as well. "I never...ever...would of said anything if I had known."

Ryou shook his head, tears flying away from his face, "Why'd you say it Bakura? You knew I didn't want to talk about my past, I thought we were getting somewhere."

"I was angry," Bakura replied, reaching out to touch Ryou's arm. "I just said it without realizing what was coming out of my mouth. I don't actually blame you Ryou. I know you wouldn't do this, not to us. You care about all of us no matter how angry you get sometimes."

The light chuckle Ryou let out was enough to convince Bakura things would be okay. "Hey, why don't I take you out for ice cream as an apology?"

Cautiously, Ryou asked, "Is this a date...?"

"I'd like it to be..."

/

"Malik open this god damn door!" Marik screamed, pounding fiercely on the front door of the Ishtar Household.

"Marik," hissed Yugi, glancing around nervously, "shut up! What if like, his mother's home!"

"She's not," Yami answered, glancing at Yugi. "Malik's is the only car here."

Marik rolled his eyes, "His sister and brothers at work." Yugi didn't fail to notice how Marik said sister and brothers instead of mother and father. He continued to pound on the door, despite what Yugi was saying, now about the neighbors who were peeking out of their windows.

Yami sighed, "Move over Marik."

"What? Why?" Marik questioned as he moved onto the steps. Dark purple eyes watched as Yami lifted up the welcome mat and pulled out a key. "Oh... How'd you know there was a key under there?"

"Yeah," Yami answered with a roll of his red eyes as he unlocked the door. "Doesn't everyone know under the mat is the first place you look for a key?"

"Obviously not," Yugi replied, as he realized his own spare key was under the welcome mat.

/

"Holy shit," cursed Marik as he looked around the room Malik was sitting in. It wasn't Malik's bedroom, he'd been in there before, but instead the room which the second (excluding the one leading to his closet obviously) door in Malik's room led to.

The room was paint black, and didn't have any windows which would of made it exactly hot if it wasn't for the air conditioner. Malik was sitting in a blue spinny chair surrounded by two desktops, with a laptop in the center, which had a built in web cam and microphone. A headset sat on his head and two speakers were on one side of each of the desk tops. Finishing up the room was a Ipod docket on top of one of the speakers, a electric blue Ipod Touch sitting in it charging and a Tripod in the corner.

Shocked by the voice that clearly didn't belong to the person he was talking to, Malik spun around with wide violet eyes. When he saw who it was he nervously asked, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Who did it?" demanded Yami, cutting the chase. "And don't try lying by saying something like 'What-are-you-talking-about?"

Malik was searching for a answer when the person on the other end of the headset came back. _"Malik," _the all to familiar voice of Seto Kaiba flooded his ear. "_I've got that IP address. Ready to kick some ass?"_

Malik spun back to the computer and typed in the numbers Kaiba was giving him. When he was finished, the first of many programs make sure the much bigger, and more damaging program would be able to make it through the original hackers defense systems, Malik knew the culprit had a better security system then the FBI. "Thanks Kaiba," Malik answered with a smile once it was done. "I've got some visitors, so you just keep sending your own stuff while I talk to them okay?"

_"By the time we're finished his laptop will be out of commission permanently," _Kaiba answered. The last thing Malik heard before he took off his headset was, "_No one fucks with Seto Kaiba and gets away with it." _

"So?" Malik questioned, putting up all of his person defenses. "What do you want to know?" 


	10. Chapter 8: The Long Stories

**Masquerade**

_**A/n: I'm writing a lot of stories, but the fans of this one are by far the most dedicated. Also, I'm going to begin posting on my FictionPress "StandingInTheBackground" so please go subscribe me there :)**_

_**Anyways to clear something up: I NEVER said Kaiba was the bad guy. You people just assumed lol. **_

**Chapter 8: The Long Stories. **

"Wait," Yami interrupted before Malik could say anything, "I'll call Bakura. I think we all need to get together and have a serious talk."

Yugi nodded, "Yami's right. Lots of secrets are being kept, and if we're really friends we've got to get them out there. Isn't the point of the club to get rid of our facades? We can't help each other do that if we don't know why the facade's are up."

"Why am I not surprised your siding with your Hubby?" Marik questioned, making both boys blush and turn away from each other.

"I can't really leave right now," Malik interrupted as Yugi texted Ryou and Yami dialed Bakura.

Marik shrugged, "Take your laptop with you. We'll meet up at a internet cafe or something."

"Ryou said him and Bakura are near one anyways," laughed Yugi. "He already read our minds. I filled him in on whats going on by the way." They settled into uncomfortable silence as Malik shoved his laptop into its bag, Marik watched with with narrowed eyes, Yugi fidgeted nervously as his fingers flew across the keyboard of his phone, and Yami gave a heavy sigh.

/

When the quartette walked into the internet cafe they found Ryou and Bakura already sitting a table drinking coffee. "Hey," Ryou greeted, flashing Yugi a smile before waving at the rest of them.

"You know," Marik mused, "It seems terribly cliche to repeat myself after so many weeks but...what the fuck happened to Ryou? Since when his he on the happy wagon?" A pale finger was flicked up at him as Ryou sipped his coffee. "Ahh, there's my Ryou-chan."

"Call me Ryou-chan and I will rip your balls off," Ryou hissed, with a certain calm about his voice that wasn't usually there. A smiling again, Ryou asked, "So whats so important?"

Yami licked his lips, "We decided we all need to come clean. With everything that seems to be going on we can't be keeping secrets."

"We have to fight together," Yugi declared with a serious face which Ryou found looked a little odd on the tri-haired boys face. "If we want to figure out why the club might be getting shut down, and be ourselves we have to fight this together."

Malik suddenly felt really guilty. "Look guys," he spoke up, his guilt obviously seeping in his voice from the way the others looked at him, "the stuff with the club is partly my fault."

"Go on," urged a curious Bakura – he knew it wasn't all Malik's fault but he was still curious. In all honesty, it was Bakura's fault for not filling the papers out correctly.

"It's kind of a long story..." Malik hummed thinking of a short version. "Seto and I were friends back in middle school when this started okay? Now its pretty well known how good of a hacker I am, and you all know Seto runs his fathers company I assume?" Malik ignored the way his boyfriend got jealous since he was using Kaiba's first name and instead paid attention to the nods of the others. "Well one of Seto's opponents in the business world hired a Hacker – Weevil – to tap into Seto's laptop and steal some stuff."

"Long story short?" Yami asked tilting his head.

Malik took a sip of the coffee the waitress had handed him and tapped away at the computer. "I blocked it, Weevil's getting back at me for ruining his reputation as a Master Hacker. Honestly, its a crappy Hacker anyways."

"Whats that got to do with the club?" Marik asked, tilting his head.

"Weevil's hacking skills might be shit, but even he can hack into a school system and make it seem like we've been reported several times, or fix video footage so it looked like Bakura was doing drugs on school grounds."

"Can we puh~lease drop that?" Bakura shouted in dismay. "It was once! Once!" Ryou just patted his kind of boyfriend's shoulder to tell him that it wasn't going to happen.

Yugi sipped his coffee. "I don't really have any secrets."

"Yugi," Ryou said sadly, kicking his friend lightly under the table. "You can tell them."

"Tell us what?" asked Marik – ever clueless about the fact that he should've shut his trap.

"My parents left me," Yugi declared, shaking his head. "Dropped me off at my Grandpa's one day when I was five and never came back."

"Oh god Yugi..." Yami's eyes dropped open, and his hand reached for Yugi's. "I'm so sorry."

Yugi shook his head, intertwining his hand with Yami's anyways, "It doesn't mean anything to me anymore. It's their lost and my gain. I ended up with a better father figure then anyone could of hoped for." Yugi hummed, "Come to think of it. I think I started acting different when he got remarried to Marie, it kinda grosses me out that two people in their sixty's have only been married for four months. Anyways, he was giving me less attention during the months before this year started and I guess I was just trying to get some of it back. I was afraid of being left again."

Ryou smiled, "Well now you have all of us, and we'll never leave you."

"I think you guys already know this," Marik declared, leaning back in his chair. "But I was arrested quiet a few times the summer I started high school. You probably heard about it the last time, the kid who got caught beating the shit out of someone? Yeah that was me." Bakura was tempted to high-five him. "When I got caught my dad threatened me with Military school – quite honestly I'm surprised I even got a choice. I'm a Navy Brat you know? I'm actually from the states but Dad's stationed here."

"Really?" Yami questioned, "I've never heard a American Accent."

Marik cleared his throat, "Hear it now?" Sure enough Yami could here a southern twinge to Marik's voice. "Most of the time I've got it under control. Next."

"My mom and sister are dead," Ryou declared cracking his neck, having just told the story earlier he had his feelings under control. "Killed by a Drunk Driver on their way to pick me up from Kendo – that was the outlet I used to get rid of my anger in middle school. Here I am a year later – I can't so much as look at a Kendo stick and my dad can't so much as look at me. That's why I live here alone, while he stays at the Main House in Europe. My family's fairly rich, so obviously we can afford the house and my apartment and living expenses."

Yami shrugged, "I don't really have anything to tell. I've been a nice kid since I was a children – I always got teased and it always came back to bite me in the ass. I just figured with all my bullies from Middle School in a different school as long as I changed I wouldn't be teased. What do you know? No one's so much as insulted me since that day I punched Otogi in the nose."

"I remember that!" Malik laughed. "He was cussing you out for months man."

All eyes suddenly locked on Bakura. "What?" he asked, looking at them over the top of his coffee cup.

"What about you? Why are you helping us?" asked Yugi, head on his hand now as he looked at Bakura.

Realizing he wasn't getting out of it Bakura set his coffee on the table and leaned back. "There was this girl – and yes she was my girl friend – named Miho. Back in my first year, before any of you guys came into the high school I was the school bad ass. I picked fights, smoked, skipped my classes. Miho took a interest in me, she realized I wasn't being myself and she helped me change.

"Obviously, we fell for each other when this was happening and we got together eventually. One day we were walking home from the movie theaters and she was shot in a drive by. It ripped me apart, and for a while I stopped putting up a fight when people tried to beat me up – just let them get revenge on me from whatever I'd done to them before the days of Miho." He took off the several bracelets he had on his wrist and showed them the scar under neither them.

Malik gasped, "Is that...?"

"Yeah," Bakura declared nodding his head casually. His eyes were locked on Ryou – worried about how the boy would take this all. Yeah, Bakura had loved Miho with all his heart but Ryou was special. Ryou was...Ryou was Ryou. "I tried to kill myself and ended up missing most of my second year when I was in a mental facility – which is why Marik, Yami, and Malik will remember me not popping up until the middle of their 1st year. For some reason, everyone assumed I'd gotten myself thrown into jail and I just rolled with it. It's helluva a lot better then saying "What'd I do this summer? I went to the mental hospital because I tried to commit suicide because my girlfriend died."

"It didn't take long for me to realize you three were wearing masks – I recognized the signs after all since I went through them. For a while I just watched to see what would happen, and when it came clear you guys didn't have a Miho to save you...Well I stepped up. By which time Ryou, and Yugi had entered the school and I'd realized they needed help to."

The group went silent as they all absorbed all the information they'd been told. "So," Yami spoke up, "what do we do know?"

"We get even," Marik exclaimed with a grin which made everyone but Bakura – who was grinning with him – shiver.


	11. Chapter 9: English Homework

**Masquerade**

**Chapter 9: English Homework **

"Welcome to my oh-so-humble abode," Ryou declared as he swung the door to his apartment open to let the guys in. Since they had plotting to do they had decided to stay at Ryou's for the night – since he lived alone and therefore they'd be uninterrupted.

Yami let his crimson eyes scan around what he could clearly tell was the living room. The room had sky blue walls with white carpet. A large TV, game shelf, a book shelf, and white sofa were placed into the room but a large portion of the room was still empty.

"Is this an apartment or a pent house?" Marik asked loudly – his eyebrow twitching lightly. "And do you even play half of these games?"

Ryou shrugged, "Sometimes I do. The ones on the top are the ones I play the most though." As Marik went to examine the large shelf of games, Malik went to look at the books.

"Ryou," Malik declared – his finger stopping at one title which drew him in. "Is this the original Alice in Wonderland? I've never actually read the book."

"Yeah," Ryou replied with a smile. "My mother use to read it to Amane and I before we went to bed. If you'd like you can borrow it."

Malik bit his lip as he glanced at Ryou. He wanted to borrow it but… "Are you sure it's okay Ryou? This is a keepsake from your mother right?"

"Thanks for worrying about it," the whitette laughed lightly, "but I'm positive you'll keep good care of it and return it unharmed." Ryou gave Malik a smile which Malik returned with a smile which almost made Yami cover his eyes and he wasn't even the receiver!

"Look I get that you two are so intrigued by Ryou's collection," Yami declared from where he was leaning against a wall – his bag still on his shoulder while the others had dropped theirs in the center of the living room, "But aren't we here to come up with a plan?"

"We have all night," Bakura declared nonchalantly as he flipped onto Ryou's couch – letting himself sink into the comfort of it. When Yami glanced over at him he found that while their darkly colored uniform stuck out against Ryou's couch, the boy's hair melted into it so it seemed as though it was a part of the couch. "So let's just relax for a while, kay Yamikins?"

"Don't call me that," Yami mumbled darkly as he sat down on the floor next to Yugi who was pulling out his English book.

"Ryou," Yugi called to the smaller whitette as he exited his bedroom – now wearing his casual clothes unlike the rest of them who were still in uniform. "Could you help me with our English homework?"

"Yeah no problem," Ryou replied as he sat on Yugi's other side.

"Could you help me with mine to?" Bakura questioned, propping himself up on his elbows.

Ryou glanced over at his boyfriend – Yami couldn't help thinking the word was odd when being used to describe Ryou and Bakura – in shock for a moment before saying, "Bakura…You're a third year."

"And?"

"I'm a first year…."

Bakura made one of those 'and-your-point-is-what-exactly?' noises as he rolled over on his back. "So? English is your first langugue isn't it?"

"Genius!" Marik declared with a grin, "Could you help me to Ryou? I can't understand all this gibberish."

"English Marik," Malik chided gently. "Gibberish is something completely different." Blushing a little bit Malik added, "B-but could you help me to Ryou? I'm not that good with foreign languages."

And before Yami knew what was happening they were sitting at the kitchen table with Ryou helping all of them. He didn't have to be a genius like Malik and Ryou to know that they weren't going to get any plotting done.

Giving in he pulled his own English book out and joined the others at the dining room table to get help with his English homework. 

_E/n: I know you were all wanting to see their revenge – but I wanted to slow things down a bit. I'm afraid it's a bit of a letdown though eh?_

_Notice however – this whole chapter was Yami's P.O.V ;) Clever eh? _

_No seriously though – if you've got any ideas or you want to see something that involves their big revenge please share. It's hard to come up with something that will live up to all of your expectations. _

_AND real quick self promotion to wrap it up:_

_Two new one-shots! Durarara and Cardfight! Vanguard. Feel free to check those out. Or you could go to my Livejournal: Lovelessgirl1 to see some stories I haven't posted on here. _


	12. Chapter 10: Blood

**Masquerade**

**Chapter 10: Blood**

"I'm hungry," Bakura complained slumping in the chair he was sitting in. His English book was open in front of him and the paper he'd had to write in the language sat 3/4 finished next to it. "What do you have to eat Ryou?"

"Food," the younger boy answered without looking up from Malik's textbook as he tried to explain a few words used in Australian-English and British-English. ** "**You can go look for something if you want."

Bakura nodded as he got up, "Will do." Ryou continued to work – not even acknowledging that Bakura had just left the room.

With a hop, skip, and a tiny gay twirl for his own amusement – Bakura found himself in the kitchen of the apartment (read: Penthouse). It only took him a moment to find the large fridge. Quicker than you can say 'I'm not gay, I'm British' he'd began rummaging around it.

He was doing said rummaging when he spotted an odd looking tub of something sitting in the fridge. Curiously he took it out and set it on the counter – surprised at how heavy it turned out to be. Even more curious than ever, he grabbed a knife and opened the lid.

Bakura squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before peering over the edge. Once he saw the contents he let out a girly scream, "Holy mother fucking shit!"

"Bakura?" Ryou's worried voice called as footsteps were heard before the group entered the kitchen. "What's wrong Bakura?"

"B-b-blood," he stuttered pointing a hand at the tub. "W-Why do y-y-you-"

Ryou looked at the tub before chuckling, "That's not blood. It's some Strawberry crap I got from my dad – it's really sweet and it tastes really good." He watched as Ryou dipped a finger in it before holding his finger out to Bakura, "Try some."

Bakura hesitated for a moment before bringing Ryou's finger to his mouth and closing his lips around it. "Mm," Bakura gave a happy moan. "It really does taste good."

Ryou pulled his finger away with a smile, "I know. It's sad that I can't have it very often."

"Why not?" asked Marik as he licked some off his own finger. "Too sweet for you to eat a lot of or something?"

Ryou shook his head, "No – it's just it stays on your fingers for a while and ends up getting in my hair. It's a pain to get a red smear out of your hair especially when you're hairs a light color like mine."

Marik hummed around his finger as he licked more off, "I guess I can understand that." However…the conversation had sprung a idea into Bakura's head.

"Hey Malik…" The genius second year looked at him from where he was standing dipping his own finger in the tub. "What color I Weevil's hair?"

"A light blue/green," Malik answered scrunching his eyebrows. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I just came up with part of a plan," a grin spread over his face as he waged a finger to get the group to come around him – all of them reluctantly moving away from the tub.


	13. Chapter 11: Glue, Goop, and Feathers

**Masquerade**

**Chapter 11: Glue, Goop, and Feathers **

Marik adjusted himself into a more comfortable position as he sat in the air vent with Bakura – a bucket of strawberry goop in between them. Somewhere in the opposite air vents Ryou and Malik were sitting together with a bucket of glue. Since they hadn't been able to get Yugi and Yami's hair up here (which was weird since Marik's fit) the two of them had been tasked with staying on the floor in a unused hall with the feathers.

They sat in silence for a while before Marik said, "So what's the deal with you and Ryou?"

Bakura sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, "I'm not even sure anymore. I thought we were going out but he's been kind of distant lately."

Marik hummed gently. "I can understand where he's coming from. If Malik were to start talking about how much he loved Kaiba I'd probably be like that to."

"You think this is about Miho?" Bakura questioned turning his head to look at Marik who shrugged in reply.

"I dunno. But Bakura you did say you love her," Marik replied leaning as far back as he could in the small space. The two of them were comfortable with each other – not the way they were with Ryou or Malik but the way all best friends were with each other. The two of them had quickly become best friends when the club as first began.

Before Bakura could reply they heard the staticy noise of the walkie-talkie. Marik picked it up and pressed down on the button, "Yesh?"

"He's coming," Malik's voice replied smoothly. "Yami and Yugi are already ready." Marik's eyebrows scrunched together as he tried to decipher what was to him a complicated sentence – prompting Bakura to explain in simpler words.

"Their ready."

"Oooh!" the light bulb flicked on above their head. "We're ready to Mal."

[Line]

Malik and Ryou sat into the vent opposite Bakura and Marik's licking lollipops when Bakura and Marik were sitting in silence. "Hey Mal," Ryou declared pulling the cherry sucker out of his mouth and speaking to his friend – not counting Yugi, Malik was probably his best friend.

"Mmm?" Malik hummed against his own lollipop – glad they had stopped at Buddy's on the way here.

"Do you think Bakura…" he stopped as his heart clenched painfully.

"Do I think Bakura…?" Malik repeated as he pulled the sucker out of his mouth in order for his friend to understand his words.

Ryou licked his lips before he finally spat it out. "Do you think Bakura is still in love with Miho?"

Malik stopped mid-motion with his Lollipop half way back in his mouth. "Is that why you aren't hanging around him as much?" Albeit a little reluctantly – Ryou nodded. "Ryou, she was his first love. She'll always have a place in his heart, just like Kaiba will always have one in mine."

Seeing the way Ryou's eyes flashed with pain, Malik placed his hand on Ryou's chin and forced the boy to look into his lavender eyes. "I don't want to hear this Mal…" doe eyes shook with hurt as he looked into his friends.

"Listen," Malik's voice left no room for argument, "Although she'll always have a place in his heart – that doesn't mean he doesn't love you. First loves are…special. But your last love? That's the most important." Malik's features got soft as he looked at Ryou, "I can tell by the way you two look at each other – You'll be each other last loves."

"How can you be sure about something like that?"

Malik shrugged as he picked up the walkie-talkie – having seen familiar green/blue hair coming towards them, "I just can."

He pressed the button and waited for Marik to pick up without giving Ryou a chance to reply. 

_A/n: Brownies to whoever can guess what predictable thing will be happening to Weevil~ I better go make a lot of them since its so predictable :P_

_I SWEAR THE PLAN WILL BE SET IN MOTION NEXT CHAPTER! And please don't kill me for the way Ryou's acting _


	14. Chapter 12: Karma's a Bitch

**Masquerade**

**Chapter 12: Karma's a Bitch **

"Everyone ready?" Bakura whispered into his walkie-talkie. As he spoke his red eyes stayed train

"As ready as we'll ever be," Malik answered with a hum from Ryou coming through as well.

"We're ready too," Yugi agreed through his own Walkie-talkie.

They waited until Weevil was right under the vents – Buckets half tilted in the hands of the pairs in the vent and feather bags ripped open to be easily thrown out – and then Bakura shouted into his walkie-talkie, "Now, Ryou!"

Cement buckets tipped over and Weevil found himself covered in sticky blue and red candy. The candy dripped down his body and pooled at the floor – leaving most of itself covering the boy. "What the-" to shocked to think very far ahead Weevil turned his face upward – and was met to even more candy falling down on him.

"Yugi, Yami," Bakura commanded smoothly, "Your turn." The blondes wasted no time flinging the feathers quickly at Weevil before taking off down the hall in the mist of the crowd of confused students.

Bakura and Marik rolled around in the vent laughing as the other two headed out of the vent they were in. They were so absorbed in their laughter that neither of them heard the creak of the vent. They didn't notice until it gave a violent jerk downwards.

"Did you feel that?" Marik asked looking around.

"Uh-huh," Bakura answered as he mimicked the movement. "Let's get out of here." They had just begun to crawl away when the vent finally let out and they went falling to the floor.

[Line]

Malik and Ryou stepped into the hallway. As they walked Malik lifted his arms above his head and stretched. "So," the platinum haired boy questioned. "Are you gonna talk to Bakura?"

"Yeah," Ryou answered after a moment. "I suppose I have to. If I just avoid him we're never going to reach an understanding about anything." Malik hummed and continued walking.

They walked in silence until they heard a scream behind them. "Someone call an ambulance!" another voice – more manly then the one that had let out the previous girlish scream. "Hurry!"

"Why were they even in the vents?" asked another voice.

"Vents? They were in the vents?" Malik and Ryou exchanged looks as they heard the final two comments among the chatter.

"Bakura! Marik!" they shouted as they turned around and ran towards the commotion. When they reached the scene they found exactly what they had feared…Bakura and Marik were laying unconscious on a piece of metal with one of the tiles from the ceiling under neither it.

"Call Yugi and Yami," Ryou urged – barely hearing his own voice as he feel to his knees next to Bakura. His hands numbly worked on trying to find a pulse even though they were shaking.

_Please be okay Bakura… _


	15. Chapter 13: The InBetween

**Masquerade **

**Chapter 13: The In-between **

_ The whole room was white - blinding unbearably white that Bakura didn't even know existed – and deathly silent._

"_What's going on?" Bakura wondered looking around him in search of something, anything. "Marik? Marik where are you!" _

_Instead of Marik, he heard a soft gently and all too familiar voice from behind him, "Bakura, he's not here." _

_ Unsure that he had really just heard what he thought he heard, Bakura turned around slowly. He took a sharp intake of breath when he saw the lavender haired girl in front of him – wearing the exact same white tennis skirt and black tank top he'd last seen her in. _

_ "Miho," he whispered staring at her. "How can you be here? You're dead." Something occurred to him, "Am I dead? Oh god I am aren't I? I died without telling Ryou how important he is to me – I'm such a fuc-"_

_ "You're not dead Jesus!" Miho shouted cutting him off. "God you can be such an idiot sometimes." _

_ Bakura huffed, "And you can be such a mean girl." _

_ "But you love me anyways~" Miho teased leaning forward onto the fronts of her feet before falling back._

_They settled into awkward silence when he didn't say anything. "Miho I-" he started. _

"_It's okay Kura-kun," she stopped him. Their eyes met and locked on each others – neither looking away. "Bakura-san is really special to you, and that's fine. I'm dead I can't be there for you anymore." _

_It took him a moment to register that Bakura-san was Ryou and then he remembered the problem at hand. "Where are we Miho?"_

"_Mmm…" she hummed as she looked around. "I don't really know – one moment I was drinking coffee and the next I'm here."_

"_Heaven has coffee?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Sweetsauce." _

"_You still haven't grown out of that word?" _

"_Meh I think it's just your influence."_

_Miho shrugged before looking around again – like she had heard something he hadn't. "You should go – everyone's waiting." _

_ "What?" before he could say anything else his vision started to blur and white was slowly spotted with black. "What's going on? Miho!" _

_ "I love you Bakura," he could hear her voice but he didn't see her. "Now go tell Ryou how you feel." _


	16. Chapter 14: Not cryingNope not at all

**Masquerade **

**Chapter 14: Not Crying…Nope not at all **

Bakura opened his eyes only to see nothing but whiteness. Blinking a few times he finally realized that he was looking at something fluffy and soft looking… Wait…White? Fluffy? Soft looking?

"Ryou?" Bakura choked out – his throat was dry so the action hurt just a bit. "Is that you?"

The ball of white shifted lightly before he found himself looking into big doe like brown eyes. "Ba..Kura?"

Bakura smiled at the sleepy whitette, "Yeah."

All hints of tiredness were wiped from Ryou's eyes as he suddenly sat up and wrapped his arms tightly around Bakura, "You're awake…Oh thank god. I was so worried."

Bakura was trying to process what all these words meant when he felt something wet against his neck were Ryou's head was. "Ryou…are you crying?" he asked gently – one of his hands coming up to rest on Ryou's back.

"N-No," Ryou choked out. "I'm ju-just…"

Remembering what had happened what seemed like moments ago he buried his face in Ryou's white locks, "I'm sorry I made you worry Ryou."

"You better be," Ryou answered against his neck. They sat there for a long time, neither really knowing nor caring how much time had passed. They were both just happy Bakura was still alive.

* * *

When they finally pulled apart Ryou's eyes were red and puffy but Bakura didn't comment on it since Ryou clearly didn't want him to. "I'm thirsty," Bakura declared scrunching his nose. "Do you have anything?"

"Um…" Ryou looked around the room before shaking his head. "Yugi must have finished off the rest of my mountain dew before he left yesterday. I'll go get you something okay? Now that you're awake, I should go see how Malik is doing anyways."

"What's wrong with Malik?"

Ryou's smile instantly left his face. There was a silent moment before Ryou said, "Marik…he's in worst shape then you…"

"What?" his own smile was wiped off as he stared up at Ryou. "What's wrong with him?"

Ryou licked his lips, "You only sustained a back injury which will heal and a minor concussion…"

"What happened too Marik," Bakura said between clenched teeth.

"He's got a broken back and…" he bit his lip before saying, "a piece of the metal in the vent pierced him through the back. They aren't sure when he'll wake up or…"

The unspoken words rung through Bakura's head even after Ryou left…

_Or even if he will at all…. _

_A/n: Waaaah I'm so sorry! Believe me – the angst is murdering my soul as well! _


	17. Chapter 15: The InBetween II

**Masquerade **

**Chapter 15: The In-between II **

Marik sighed as he finally stopped walking and looked around. When he'd first woken up in this…whatever this was he hadn't seen anything so he'd just started walking without really thinking about it.

"Where the fuck am I?" Marik huffed as he squatted down so he could think clearly. He looked kind of like a frog honestly with the way he was squatted down with his hands in-between his legs touching the floor to keep him from falling like he surely would otherwise .

He turned his head – looking all around the room with dark purple eyes…

White, White, White, some shadowy looking thing, White, whi-wait what? His head whipped back to where he had seen the shadowy looking thing only to find himself staring right into honey gold eyes.

With a shout of Holy fucking shit, he found himself falling off his feet and onto his butt. "Hey, you're Marik right?" the owner of the honey gold eyes questioned. From his spot down on the grown Marik had a clear view of her – she was tall by women standards but still shorter then himself and had long lavender hair which reminded him of Malik's eyes.

"Yeah but who are you?" he questioned curiously, "And where the fuck did you come from?"

"I'm Miho!" she answered cheerfully – he didn't fail to notice the lack of answering of his last question. "And I'm here to be your guide."

"My guide…?" he questioned – his mind was to busy trying to figure out what she was going to guide him to register exactly who she was. "My guide for what exactly?"

"You see, the guys up there are giving you a choice – being this wasn't their plan for you," she declared leaning back onto the balls of her feet. "I can show you the way back or I can show you the way forward." Seeing the confused look in his eyes she added, "To put it in simple terms whether you live or die is completely up to you."

"Well that's stupid," Marik huffed after a minute. "Obviously I chose living – I can't leave Malik alone now can I?"

Miho smiled, "I figured you'd say something like that." She snapped her fingers and suddenly Marik was falling through the ground under him.

Miho stood there for a minute before she put her hands behind her head and walked away, "You sure have made some good friends Bakura…Don't let something like this happen again or else you won't get a second chance."


	18. Chapter 16: Abs of Steel!

**Masquerade **

**Chapter 16: Abs of Steel! **

"Ah Fuck!" Marik screamed as he sat up – only to scream once again as sharp pain shot up his back and pulled him back so he was lying down again. It wasn't until he heard a groan that he realized he'd thrown someone off his stomach. "Sorry, sorry are you okay?"

"Me? Am I okay?" the person questioned angrily. That voice…why did it sound so familiar? The figure looked up and angry lavender eyes locked on Marik's dark purple one, "I'm not the one who fell from the vents!"

Marik grinned, "Were you worried about me Mal?"

"Of course I was!" shouted Malik much to Marik's surprise. Malik wasn't usually this straight forward – not to mention the fact that he was angry at Marik for some reason. Seriously – why the fuck was he getting yelled at? "The doctors told me you might not live and…"

Suddenly a light bulb went on in Marik's head and he pulled Malik to him so the other was sitting in his lap. "Don't cry Mal. I'm alive aren't I?"

"I can't help it," Malik cried – letting the tears flow out now that he was in Marik's arms which seemed to drain all that fake anger out of him. "I thought I'd lost you, you stupid maniac!"

Marik chuckled as he held Malik, "As if I'd ever leave you."

"You better not," Malik sniffled against Marik's chest before adding, "Jesus how many times do you work out a day? You've got abs of steel!"

Marik was shocked silent for a moment before he laughed out loud. "I've got to keep in shape for you don't I?"

"Malik! Malik!" A familiar voice shouted as a fluffy white head of hair popped into the room, "Bakura's awake!"

"Marik is too!" Malik answered as he jumped out of Marik's arms to hug his friend.

Marik huffed, "Bakura is here to?"

Ryou nodded from where he was hugging Malik, "Yeah." Turning away from Marik and back at the small boy in his arms he added, "We should call Yugi, and get a nurse to check these two idiots out."

"Speaking of the shrimp," Marik interrupted again, "where is here?"

"Yami took him home since he'd been here all night – we didn't want to make him stay here when we didn't even know when you'd wake up."


	19. Chapter 17: What Just Happened?

**Masquerade **

**Chapter 17: What just happened?**

The car was silent as Yami drove towards Yugi's home – the only conversation coming during the moments when Yugi told him where to turn.

"Go right here," Yugi instructed- his voice was still raspy and his eyes still red and puffy from crying back at the hospital.

Yami flicked on his turn signal as he let his eyes slip over to look at Yugi. What was he suppose to do? He wanted to comfort the younger blonde but he didn't know how to do that – especially not when he was just as torn up about their friend's injuries as Yugi was.

"Yugi-" Yami began, still not knowing what to say but wanting to say something regardless, only to be cut off the next moment.

_When I open the door, there my wife collapsed_

_The carpets all blood stained. _

_If a stranger-*_

Yugi flipped his phone open stopped the ringtone short. "Malik?" he asked urgently. "Did something happen to Marik? Oh! This is it Yami." Yami pulled the car to a stop as Yugi continued his talk with Malik. "Their awake!" There was a pause before Yugi added, "Are you sure you don't want us to turn around?"

Now that the car was quite Yami could make out Malik answering, "_It's fine. You just got home right?"_

"We'll come see you tomorrow then?"

"_Yeah – sleep tight Yugi."_

"You too," Yugi answered before hanging up. He turned to look at Yami, "So Bakura and Marik woke up earlier – Malik said we should just go visit tomorrow."

Yami hummed, "Okay. I'll pick you up around ten then – that's when visiting hours start right?" Yugi gave a short nod. "Want me to walk you to the door?"

"I'll be fine," Yugi laughed. "I live here after all." Yami hummed but didn't Yugi as the small boy climbed out of the car and walked up the steps of his porch until he was inside the house.

Yami had just put the key back when he heard the door open again. "Yami!" Yugi shouted as he ran back down the steps and around the car so he was outside of Yami's now rolled down window.

"What's wro-" he was cut off by a pair of lips smashing into his own.

When he pulled away Yugi grinned, "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Oh yeah…see you…" by the time he finished his sentence Yugi had already disappeared back into his house. "What just happened? 

_A/n: And so Puzzleshipping is kinda-sorta together now! The only chapter of left if the lovely epilogue. _

_My next Tendershipping story already has four weeks of finished chapters typed and beta'd so that should be out the week after the end of this… Um… I dun think I really have anything else to say right now… _


	20. Epilogue with IMPORTANT NOTE!

**Masquerade**

**Epilogue **

Yugi sat in Yami's lap as Marik and Bakura were signing out. "I can't believe their finally getting out of this place," Ryou said from beside them. Pale fingers gripped the edge of the window ledge he was sitting on as his feet dangled down innocently kicking. "It feels like they've been here forever."

"I can't believe someone is trusting them with wheel chairs," Malik sighed. He was sitting in the chair on Yugi and Yami's right with his legs sitting on top of the chair criss-cross applesauce style. "They'll run some little old ladies over."

Yugi laughed, "We'll just have to watch them while we're out."

"Watch who while whose out?" asked Bakura as he wheeled over. Due to the back injuries Marik and Bakura had suffered the doctor had recommended the two not walk for a few weeks.

Ryou hopped off the ledge and landed gracefully onto his feet, "We're just talking about the old ladies you'll run over with this thing."

Bakura clicked his tongue in disappointment, "Who said we were limiting ourselves to old ladies?"

"Yeah," Marik echoed. "What is we want to run over some toddlers?"

Malik grinned, "Going into the candy stealing business?"

A dark purple eye winked, "You know it, Mal."

"As much as this conversation amuses me," Yami drawled causing their attention to snap to the two blondes, "I want to get out of this place."

Marik wrinkled his nose – suddenly less concerned about Malik and more concerned with his surroundings - "Agreed. I'm sick of the old people smell."

"Ice cream anyone?" Ryou offered. "I got paid earlier so, it'll be my treat."

Malik grinned, "I'm up for free fatty goodness."

"Actually," Bakura cut in as they began moving towards the door, "I have to go somewhere first. I'll meet you at the parlor thought."

Marik smiled in a way that made Ryou feel as though the other man actually knew what was going on, "See you buddy." Malik saluted him, Yugi gave him a wave, and Yami patted his shoulder before the group of four walked away – leaving him alone with Ryou.

"I'll see you soon then," Ryou declared shifting from foot-to-foot. Bakura nodded so the other boy to walk away.

As he watched the other boys back emotions swelled in Bakura until finally he shouted, "Hey Ryou!" Hearing his name, Ryou turned around and red eyes connected to brown eyes, "I love you."

Shock covered Ryou's Facial features for a moment before they softened. "I love you to," he answered with a smile before he turned around and walked to where Malik was waiting for him outside.

[-]

A few minutes later, Bakura was rolling into the cemetery. It took him a while but soon enough he was looking down on the tombstone he wanted to visit. Unique lavender lettering stuck out against the black marble which in turn stuck out against the green grass.

"Hey Miho," he greeted. "I'm sorry I haven't visited in a while but a lot has happened – I suppose you already knew that though." Bakura took a deep breath, "I don't think I'll be visiting every weekend anymore like a usually do." He just sat there for a long time before kissing the tips of his fingers and touching them to the tombstone like Miho's mother had once shown him.

After a moment he turned his wheel chair around – he had a bunny to go get ice cream from. 

**A/n:** And so Masquerade ends... It's kinda sad.

Anyways – I know I promised my new Yugioh story would be up as I posted this but I've run into a problem...

You see my computer completely crashed and I lost my beta'd copies of all 4 chapters I had typed (all that hard work my beta did. LOST!). So now I have to retype them – and get them rebeta'd (...surprise..).

So YEAH – it maybe another week or two.

Fun fact: Before it was pointed out, Ryou had said "I love you Tom."


End file.
